In a short, quite brilliant YouTube clip taken from a 1989 interview with Pere Ubu frontman David Thomas, his approach to making music is explained.
Likening Pere Ubu's career to the paper cup he is holding, he turns it in his hand and inspects it from many different angles.
He then returns the cup to its upright position, saying, "If you only know the cup this way, you don't know the cup."
From the outset, the Cleveland-based outfit sought to create fresh pathways through the rock music form. Arising in 1975 from the ashes of proto-punk band Rocket From The Tombs, Pere Ubu first journeyed into dark, sprawling pieces such as Tombs' song 30 Seconds Over Tokyo, with founding members Thomas and inspirational guitarist Peter Laughner seeking to distance themselves from their thrash-rocking peers by taking a more adventurous approach to instrumentation and sound.
By the time the opportunity to record the band's debut album came at the end of 1977, Laughner was dead from acute pancreatitis, and Pere Ubu was already in its third incarnation.
The Modern Dance, with its mix of Laughner-era garage-punk tracks and future-looking experimental pieces, captured a challenging aesthetic that inspired post-punk acts such as Bauhaus, the Birthday Party and the Dead Kennedys.
The album throws curve balls, counteracting rock-solid rhythms with squalling synths, ambient noises, and Thomas' quivering singing and high-pitched yelping. It's an uneasy ride but one that feels as thrilling today as it did in 1978.
Opener Nonalignment Pact settles into an appealing bed of punky guitar-pop, but not before an extended section of wailing feedback has killed off any possibility of entering the mainstream. The title track chugs along to puffs of synth-driven steam before Laughing introduces discordant, free-forming saxophones, dirty guitars and a rousing sing-along chorus, encapsulating Pere Ubu's desire to simultaneously attract and repel.
The album's message: Those who think they know where rock is heading don't know rock.
